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Monthly Archives: January 2014

On the Australia Day weekend four of us coffee group girls (we are a support group for carers) got on a cruise and had the best time away from our normal lives.

For me the cruise turned out to have many unexpected layers of awesomeness. I used to think that cruisers were a lame way to experience a holiday and that idea got totally smashed to bits!!!!

Dancing, eating, enjoying the paced out cocktail or two

flying foxes, having a dip in the pool

laughing, waving my arms around, being a part of a morning show and spectator

unwinding, decompressing, lots of smiles.

One of my most memorable moments that happened, was when we sailed out of the harbour and every one was happy, cheerful and excited. I decided that I wanted to go on the flying fox, only to find out that I was over the limit. First time in my life EVER have I failed a breath test!!!!!!!

Check out the line on top of the image. That’s the flying fox

That night while going out the heads the sea was quite rough and many, including myself got seasick. It was just as well Jody talked me into nipping the sickness in the bud by getting some tablets.

The next day I felt great and the ship was back in the harbour ready for some Australia day festivities.

That night we had some fireworks, but just quietly, they were a bit piddly…………….. yet someone did point out that we were 14 stories high.

Then it was time to put on our dancing shoes and dance the night while we sailed out of the harbour again…not so rough this time.

We all knew that Sunrise would be broadcasting live from the ship the next day but we didn’t realise that we were headed to my home town Kiama. Out of preparation for the show we all made a sign.

This is the sign that I made for the Sunrise show

The next day it was exciting to see my home town from the ocean and I couldn’t help but brag to who ever would listen about our beautiful surrounds.

I did stand for about half an hour to be a part of the crowd, but I gotta be honest……the bacon from the buffet was calling me!

For me, the excitement was how many of my local friends on Facebook were posting pictures of our ship from the shore and the stir it caused. It even made local media; Kiama Independent and Illawarra Mercury .

It was such a great experience that left me relaxed and ready to face life again. Here are some shots that I took on the last day, I hope you enjoy them.

Like this:

Yesterday my stat’s went a little crazy as I decided to share this post that I wrote about two years ago. When I wrote it, I was in a very fragile place and had enough of people telling me how my child’s antics were just normal child behaviour.

Since penning my thoughts way back when, I haven’t really experienced this frustration for some time. Is it because people don’t say it to me as frequently, as the older he gets one can clearly see that his behaviour is nothing like a child his age? Is it because these days I’m a lot more calm about my situation? Who knows, I think the antidepressants are working….Oh, and seeing a psychologist too was pretty unreal…and I haven’t yelled at a man it public for a year now and the eF word has seemed to have made and exit from my general thoughts…..hi fives all round friends!!

Yesterday I was reminded of this topic as I was part of a discussion board with other’s who are effected by VCFS. (I can’t share the link as its private). On the thread there were a number of people who kept on insisting that the vcfs antics of one of the children who was posted about was normal behaviour for all children.

I didn’t feel the rage of yester year, however frustration was mounting when the mum who wrote the original post clearly articulated her knowledge of the differences between what a typical child does to one who has special needs and then seemed to go unheard.

This made me realise that my frustrations from a few years back, are being felt strongly today by many of those who are in my situation. As a result I decided to share my post called “But all children do that…..do they really???” and the response has been an awakening experience.

For those out there who could relate to the words I had expressed, it is a word in season just for you. It is my gift as one who goes through stuff and writes about them. Not all things get heard straight away but when the season is right the ears will be there to hear.

So to you my fellow VCFS peeps (and others who could relate to the post), keep being awesome and wonderful and thank you for receiving my written words. Lets not be put off by those who don’t seem to have the ears to hear about our lives. I hope your days are full of understanding and strategies to keep you sane.